During the last 10 years, the labor market in the country has achieved notable improvements for workers, however, points such as labor informality, gender gaps and changes in social dynamics, which are not only changing the characteristics of those they are looking for a job, but the skills that this demands; They continue to pose great challenges in this matter.
These are some of the conclusions of the recent report from the Fiscal and Labor observatories of the Javeriana University, after analyzing the changes in the demand and supply of employment in the local context between 2013 and 2023, where in addition to everything already mentioned , it is noted that the country is facing to a new challenge: the aging of societies.
Pensions.
EFE
During the presentation of the results, Oliver Pardo, director of this center for analysis and study of economic data, explained that the first thing to take into account with this problem is that in the last ten years, Colombia has experienced significant changes in its demographic structure. that have directly impacted the labor market, since today we have an older population.
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“A decrease has been observed in the percentage of children and adolescents, while the proportion of all groups of people over 25 years of age has increased. The proportion that grew the most is that of older adults with a change from 11% to 15.3%, being the greatest growth,” said this expert.
Informal employment
EFE
Due to this, it is asked to keep in mind that the proportion of students in the total population has fallen, which cannot be explained from the perspective that boys, girls and adolescents study less, but because being an older society, there are fewer children. and adolescents.
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Despite this panorama, which would first raise alarm bells, the Observatory maintains that the country is currently in a phase of demographic dividend, which, in simpler terms, means that the proportion of the population of productive age (people over 18 and before pension age) is greater than that of dependents (older adults and children).
Employment of older adults
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“This demographic bonus, which as we see is and will be reducing, can be taken advantage of by the country by giving these people the greatest training and employability, managing to nourish the present pension system with resources to meet its obligations and minimizing future population needs. without pension,” said Pardo.
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Thus, the experts in charge of the report highlighted that “maximizing the effects of the demographic dividend should be central in a dynamic work environment and in the face of increasing challenges of climate change, technological change that will entail the creation and destruction of jobs and, perhaps, entire industries.”
Employment
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Another interesting fact from this analysis has to do with the fact that Colombia shows fewer young people working, more adults in the formal sector and the same proportion of older adults with pensions, highlighting that among young people the proportion of students and non-participation increased and as a complement the proportion of employees was reduced.
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“In 2013, there was a higher proportion of people in the 15-24 age range in informal employment (33%) compared to students (30%). However, by 2023, this trend changed, with 39% of students in this age group compared to 24% in informal jobs,” they maintain.
Informality
Jaime Moreno / Portfolio
Likewise, they explain that this change could be attributed to greater accessibility to educational institutions and/or a growing number of people who recognize the educational benefits in the country.
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Better salaries and less informality
The report of the Fiscal and Labor observatories of La Javerianaalso reviewed the evolution of key points for the labor market such as informality and salary ranges, finding that in both points there have been significant improvements, although some gaps persist to work on.
Informality,
“The average salary of all Colombians has remained relatively constant due to the increase in formality. However, wages in formality and informality have fallen in relative terms to the minimum wage,” they indicated.
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According to these academics, “this means that average salaries have not improved more than the minimum wage, that is, there are many salaries that are below the minimum, making the minimum wage far from being the true minimum wage. the economy. This is an indicator that the economy “It has not improved in terms of efficiency.”
Pontifical Javeriana University
Pontifical Javeriana University
In these results, Bogotá maintains the best relationship between formality and income, while Cundinamarca has surpassed Antioquia in this relationship and territories such as Nariño, Sucre and La Guajira present the worst indices.
“This phenomenon reflects a worrying loss of purchasing power on the part of workers and lower returns to education measured through income. However, even when there is a salary decrease compared to the minimum, higher educational levels are related to more formality,” they highlight.
Colombian students
Weather Archive
Finally, regarding labor informality, they conclude by saying that the analysis broken down by gender and type of employment reveals that, in 2013 and 2023, men received higher salaries than women in both informality and formality, regardless of educational level.
Likewise, it is confirmed that both men and women have registered a decrease in average salaries at all educational levels between 2013 and 2023 and there is no educational or formal/informal level where more will be earned in 2023 than in 2013 relative to the minimum wage.
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